D'Souza '83 in Hanover

By Nathaniel Ward | Monday, May 9, 2005

In Hanover last Wednesday for a speaking engagement, former Dartmouth Review editor Dinesh D'Souza '83 defended American foreign policy and said social issues would not divide the conservative movement.

Nathaniel Ward

—Dinesh D'Souza '83—

The United States has been, by and large, a force for good in the world, he said, with its longtime advocacy of democracy and its support of free trade. "If this is American empire," D'Souza said, "I say two cheers, three cheers for American empire."

President Bush is gambling that the invasion of Iraq will spur democratic revolution across the Middle East, D'Souza said. If the effort succeeds, he said, "you'll see the beginning of a historical transformation no less stunning than the transformation of the former Soviet Union."

Nevertheless, foreigners often reject American culture, which he said has taken a turn for the worse in recent years. Over the past 50 years, Americans have adopted a morality which emphasized licentious individualism over more traditional morals, he said, and such behavior can offend cultures like those in the Orient.

Mr. D'Souza also scoffed at claims that the conservative movement might splinter over evangelical Christians's social agenda. "Like any ideology at the center stage of power, [conservatism] is pulled by many of its factions," he said. Nonetheless, he said that social conservatives, who helped elect Presidents Reagan and Bush, have not been rewarded with major policy victories, and political expedience may require they be repaid.

D'Souza '83 in Hanover

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